Wang discusses rumors about Lee’s parentage

By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Chris Wang / Staff reporters

Wed, Apr 10, 2013 - Page 1

Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien yesterday weighed in on former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) family amid controversy caused by a Control Yuan report that said that Lee was the illegitimate child of a Japanese man.

Wang said he was of the opinion that the identity of Lee’s father should be clarified because “there have been endless rumors” about it.

General Wego Chiang (蔣緯國) had been rumored not to be a biological son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) for several decades before the rumor was proved to be true, Wang said, adding that Wego Chiang “admitted the fact in his own book.”

Wang made the remarks in response to media queries about a Control Yuan report in which Shih Hsin University adjunct assistant professor Chi Chia-lin (戚嘉林) was quoted as saying: “It should be correct that [Lee] was an illegitimate son of a Japanese father.”

The report was issued by Control Yuan members Chou Yang-shan (周陽山) and Lee Ping-nan (李炳南), who investigated the preservation of documents related to the 228 Incident, an uprising sparked on Feb. 27, 1947, against the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.

The Control Yuan removed the report from its Web site on Monday.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said the Control Yuan “should have better things to do than probe who Lee Teng-hui’s father was.”

If the Control Yuan deemed the issue as being in the public interest, it should probe President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) reported dual nationality and whether Wang holds People’s Republic of China citizenship because the public would also be interested in the truth about both rumors, DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said.

Wang has been a controversial Control Yuan president with his “inappropriate and ridiculous” comments, Pan said, adding that Wang has made the Control Yuan a circus since he took over as its head.

Wang became Control Yuan president in July 2008.

DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said that no one in the Control Yuan, including Wang, seemed to be doing what they are supposed to do and it was not surprising that many people have proposed shutting it down.